Unburdened
by Danni1989
Summary: It's Christmas Eve and Elena Gilbert hasn't uttered a word since the car accident that killed her whole family two years ago. When Damon Salvatore finds her sleeping at the cemetery, will he be able to get through to her?


**This was written for the A2A Holiday Exchange on LiveJournal, for the ever amazing nerddamon. Your prompt was something different for me, in that I usually write romance, and as I wrote this I couldn't find a place where romance seemed appropriate. I hope you enjoy this.**

 **Prompt:** **PLEASE INCLUDE: - Elena has been a lonely orphan for years, you can explain why she never ended up with Jeremy/Jenny if you want, but the reason doesn't matter to me - Elena is more rough around the edges than in canon, she's refused to speak since the car crash that killed her family - Damon finds Elena sleeping in a public place on xmas eve or new year's eve. YOUR CHOICE: - Vampire or All Human AU, either is fine with me - Elena's age - Elena can be homeless or maybe people just stay away from her because she's reclusive or a "weirdo". I'm hoping this prompt works for writers that want this to be either romantic/fluffy or dark.**

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The first time I saw her it was sitting in a Starbucks, with a hat pulled down low over her face and her head down. It was clear in the way she was sitting that she didn't want company. She sat there fiddling with a tea bag for a long time before suddenly getting up and walking away, never once looking up. From that momentary glance of her I knew she was beautiful. What I didn't know was what caused such a beautiful woman to be so unhappy. She was the picture of misery. The second time I saw her was much like the first. She was sitting in the park feeding ducks, her eyes never leaving them. Never looking up. I heard people walking past her muttering and laughing but she never gave them the time of day. It was like she couldn't hear them, even though I knew she could. It just didn't faze her anymore.

The second time I saw her she was sitting outside the hospital with her knees pulled up to her chest and her face buried into them. Her shoulders were shaking and I knew she was crying. No one would stop to console her and I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to do so. It didn't look like she wanted anyone to talk to her. Yet again people were pointing and laughed as they walked past. I had never seen a more miserable person in my life and I had no idea how to help her or if I should even want to. This was her life and she should be able to live it as she pleased, even if that meant she wanted to be miserable for the rest of her life.

The third time I saw her she was standing outside what was well known as the Gilbert house, even though now it was occupied by some other family. There was a middle-aged woman, her husband and her two children. It was a scary similarity to the family that used to live there. Everyone knew what happened to the Gilbert family, it was in the newspapers for months after. Parents refused to let their children out after dark and still to this day people were afraid. Mystic Falls used to be a town where nothing ever happened, now Mystic Falls was the town with the family that drove over Wickery Bridge. Some of the conspiracy theorists said that someone who hated Doctor Gilbert caused him to drive over the edge of the bridge, which would have made it into a homicide. Other people said that Doctor Gilbert had a mental break and he drove over the edge on purpose, killing his wife and son. Most people said he hit a patch of ice and lost control of the vehicle. It was declared an accident and no one will ever know for sure. But no the only surviving member of the family was a pariah in town. No one sympathized with her and no one cared about her. Elena Gilbert stopped existing after the accident. Elena Gilbert was practically a ghost. I saw her standing outside her old home completely emotionlessly. Only when the man opened the door did she rush away, disappearing faster than I could ever think possible.

I saw her several more times after that time, never in the same places twice. A few times I saw her coming out of a rundown apartment building which is where she clearly decided she deserved to live. It was a far cry from the life she used to live. She used to be the Mystic Fall golden child. She was straight a's in school, she was a cheerleader and she was the most popular girl in school. Life was good until that fateful accident. Now she walked around town broken and alone. All of her friends abandoned her when she went over the edge and some might say she preferred to be invisible now.

On Christmas Eve when I saw her again, I had just gotten out of my car at the Mystic Falls cemetery. It was wear my parents were buried and I always stopped to pay my respects once a week. I may not have gotten along with my parents all the time, but they were my parents, I owed it to them to not forget them. It was late when I got there, having gotten out of work late and not wanting to break tradition. When I saw her this time she was curled up in a ball on the ground in front of a cluster of graves a little way down from where I was. It was clear she was either asleep or dead. It was cold enough out here that she could freeze to death out here tonight. After talking to my parents for a minute I walked over to her and knelt. I gently shook her shoulder and was relieved when she started. When she saw me she jumped up and stepped away from me. She shook her head and I knew she hadn't uttered a word since her parents died.

"I'm sorry for startling you. But its cold out here, you should head home." I suggested to her, holding my hands up in a placating manner. She shook her head and sat down on the ground again.

"Come on Elena, come with me." I urged her. Her head snapped up when she heard her name. Her mouth was wide open, it was like she hadn't heard her name in a long time. I guess when you're completely alone for such a long time, you lose your identity over time. "Come with me, Elena. Let me get you warm."

"Why?" She asked and I was shocked at the sound of her voice. She looked me in the eye now and the fire in her eyes surprised me. It was like she was angry with me for wanting her to be safe. It was hard to remember that the Elena in front of me was only two years younger than me. She looked like she'd lived a thousand lives.

"Because you can't lose yourself like this. Do you think your family would have wanted you to live like this?" I asked her and she glared at me.

"You have no idea what they would want. You don't know anything about this." She screamed at me and I took a step towards her. She was pacing like a caged animal now and I needed to calm her down.

"No parent would want their child to live how you've been living. It's been three years Elena, you need to start living again." I told her taking a hold of her shoulders.

"How do you know I haven't been living?" She asked me and I relaxed.

"I've seen you around town. Your parents wouldn't want you to live like this. You need to live the life that they wanted for you. You have to live for them, for the things that the never got to do." I told her. I wasn't sure where all of this was coming from. All I knew was that I cared about her and I didn't want to see her kill herself with the life she was living. There used to be so much light in her and now that was all but extinguished.

"Why do you care?" She asked me and I shrugged.

"I don't know. All I know is I do. Just come with me, I'll take you somewhere and we can either talk or you can simply warm up." I told her. She eyed me suspiciously for a couple minutes but she eventually placed her hand in my outstretched one. I was able to lead her over to my car and she got inside. I cranked the heat when I noticed her shaking.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked her and she shrugged. I sighed and drove to my house. I didn't want her going back to that rundown apartment. The building looked like it should be condemned.

"Where are we?" She asked me and I told her we were at my house. She followed me up the front walk and into the house where I sat her down in front of a roaring fire in the parlour.

"Do you want hot cocoa, or tea, coffee?" I asked her and she shook her head.

"Do you have anything stronger?" She asked and I poured her a glass of bourbon. She took it gratefully and curled her legs up under her on the chair she was sitting in.

"Do you want to talk?" I asked her and she sighed but nodded her head just the same.

"What do you want to know?" She asked me.

"I just want to know what happened to you? I understand their loss was huge for you, but to completely let go isn't right." I told her.

"How would you feel if the rumours kept attacking you. At the beginning, it was just a car crash. A terrible accident that sent my parents and brother over the edge of a bridge that left me an orphan. But then people started turning it into something that it wasn't. It was inconceivable to people to think that my father could simply lose control of a vehicle. No, they had to turn it into something more sinister. Either someone ran them off the road, making it murder, or my father had a break down of sorts and drove them off on purpose. People turned a tragedy like that into something that it wasn't and I wasn't able to get past that. They turned my parent's legacy, and their memory into a nightmare and I decided I just didn't want to be any part of it anymore. That's why I shut everyone out and stopped living as you say it." She told me and I could totally see her point. But in a lot of ways I still felt that she was handling it all wrong.

"Just tell everyone who has an opinion about the accident to screw themselves. You know your mom and dad and you know what the police said. They said it was an accident, so just leave it at that and get back to living your life. I didn't know your parents personally but I feel like that is what they would have wanted. No parent wants their child to give up living because they no longer have a life." I explained to her.

"I understand that, I do. And I know that's what they would want, but sometimes it's just so hard. Sometimes I feel like I could be turning a corner and finally getting better, but then I hear something or I see something and I just revert. I've been depressed for so long now that it just seems natural." She told me and I nodded.

"If you want me to help you, I am more than willing to do so. It's Christmas Eve, we can go to the Grill for the annual Christmas dinner and people can see you out and about. The only way to make people stop talking is to show them that they can't judge your family anymore. You're the last living Gilbert, so you have to do your family proud." I told her and she smiled at me.

"I don't know what I can do to make my family proud. My family had dreams for me. They wanted me to become a doctor like my father was." She told me and I grinned.

"Who said you can't? Do it Elena. Become the doctor that they all wanted you to be. It's not too late to make something of your life." I told her and she nodded her head.

"I'll try. But what about right now?" She asked me and I shrugged.

"You can go change your clothes and then we can go to the Grill for dinner. Make an appearance and maybe greet a few people." I suggested and she took a deep breath.

"Okay." She agreed.

"Good, now let's go." I said motioning for her to stand up. Together we walked back outside and to my car. I drove her to her apartment and watched as she went inside. I still didn't like the idea of her being there, but my next mission would be to get her to move out of that place. She returned a few minutes later in a nicer dark coat, leggings, and black boots. She looked a million times better than she had before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 _Elena_

All eyes were on me when I walked into the Grill with Damon beside me.

"Is that Elena Gilbert?" One woman asked and I ignored everyone.

"I think it is. She looks different." Another said. Damon pulled out a chair and I sat down, our table was in the middle of the restaurant within sight of almost every other table. It was fine with me for once, I wanted the rumours to stop. If people could see I was starting to get over it, then maybe they'd stop talking about it.

"How are you doing?" Damon asked me and I smiled. I was hoping it was more of a smile than a grimace. I hadn't had too much experience with smiling recently.

"I'm fine. It feels good to not be invisible for once." I told him and he grinned.

"Elena, you have never been invisible. You could never be invisible." He told me with a smile.


End file.
